There's an absolutely gigantic park right across the street from the subway station, yet again hidden between the other doors leading into the skyscrapers. There are very few signs, although there are tons of statues in grayscale and bright colors in the park if Sable wants some landmarks.

"Gosh, your world puts an awful lot more effort into things looking lovely than my old one does." She spends a moment getting oriented and checks the time. How long does she have before the appointment?

She has just about 90 minutes, as a matter of fact.

"It has been an absolute delight talking with you, but I don't want to take up all your time, and I should probably get some food. It was just before supper when I got unexpectedly transported, so I'm a bit hungry. Any recommendations in the area?"

"Honestly, I just order anything that looks good from wherever. I like Indian food, and you could order some of your own? I don't really have a favorite restaurant, I honestly pick somewhat at random because they're all good."

"Reasonable. Well, I'll pick someplace at random and give the food a try. Thank you very much, and see you soon!"

She looks around. Indian food would be really great, honestly, and she can afford to eat out at least once, given that she doesn't even have an apartment yet.

"Oh, because you're unfamiliar here: we don't have sit-down restaurant outside of the most expensive and fancy high-end ones. The way that it works is that you can rent a seat in a cafe or bakery and have the food delivered to you there while enjoying their coffee, tea and pastries as well". There's a charming bakery, decorated in all kinds of woody tones, with a natural-looking interior. And there's a much more futuristic, but still charming and inviting cafe, with all-white interiors and mesmerizing, simple murals along the walls, giving the vibe of being the inside of the spaceship version of the Titanic.

"That sounds absolutely delightful. I think I see a lovely little cafe to try this out in. Thank you!"

Off she goes to the futuristic cafe. Spaceship vibes look like fun.

There's a bunch of bench seats everywhere, that work like super-nice and comfy armchairs. The constant aroma of delicious pastries and many different amazing teas fill the room, creating a fantastic sensory landscape. Finding an app to let Sable order some very promising-looking Indian food doesn't take much time at all. And everything in them is very, very affordable indeed.

Well, then she'll have a nice green tea or something like it from the cafe while she waits, and order some garlic naan and maybe something with chicken. She's got a timer on her phone to make sure she gets to her appointment on time, and her phone's set to vibrate so she doesn't disrupt anyone, and she's got tasty tea and very shortly tasty food.

And she's definitely not feeling kind of brittle around the edges, no ma'am.

A robot that's more or less a rolling table makes its way over to Sable, with a cup of green tea placed on top of it. She can just take the tea, and the colorful cup covered in big blue and green dots for herself.

15 or so minutes go by before the robot returns again, carrying a garlic naan together with a bowl containing a fantastic-smelling chicken-something-or-other placed onto the table that held the green tea previously, together with the necessary cutlery on a nice, square porcelain dish of its own. Taking a taste of the meal reveals that it's simply heavenly.

She sighs tenderly, smiling. This is a world that clearly takes the little things seriously. Maybe... 

She'll figure out where that train of thought was going later. She doesn't feel like breaking down in a public cafe. Focus on delicious food and wonderful ambience. She looks around and sighs warmly and has another few bites.

There are other people appreciating their own meals, from all kinds of different cuisines. Or just enjoying some croissants or hot chocolates while talking with their friends.

They're all so... content here. Things are pleasant. And straightforward. And reasonable. She takes a steadying breath and smiles lopsidedly and sips her tea. Why couldn't Earth be like this? Why couldn't she have had this for decades already?

No. Breathe. 

She takes her time, breathes, and looks around, and smiles. It's going to be okay. It might actually be okay.

Quite so! One feature of thomassian cuisine, that Sylvania failed to mention, is that portions are unusually large. There is something strangely-satisfying about finishing such a big portion, but it takes more time than a meal would typically take. The alarm on Sable's phone begins to vibrate right after she's done. And it vibrates in a very obvious, powerful way.

Ooh. That's a very satisfyingly distinct and impossible to ignore vibration. And an impressively large portion. Satisfying, but she's possibly not in-shape enough to keep that up indefinitely. Guess she'll have to take up yoga. Or maybe they have some medical treatment that can fix her knees and she'll take up something with any impact to it. She looks around to figure out what to do with her plates. Was there something obvious people were doing when they finished their meals?

They place their plates on one of the lower shelves of the waiterbot, avoiding putting any dishes or cutlery on the top shelf used for bringing food or drinks to a the tables, as it makes its way back to the staff counter.

Aha. Convenient. Impressively so. She does the same, making sure everything's neatly in place, and then heads off toward Doctor Sylvania's office. She admires the park a bit more on the way. This world — or at least this country — puts an awful lot more care into aesthetics too. It's nice.

It's not particularly far to walk before reaching Sylvania's office. It's in a clinic that's on the lower floors of a building overlooking the park, with a very nice two-story waiting room and lobby full of people. There are people lying down on patches of soft green material, or slowly breathing something in through a plastic mask over their mouths while nursing an arm or leg, and people reading some of the pretty PSAs attached to the walls. Looking around, Sable can see a bunch of doors with random-seeming strings of numbers on them. One of them has the phone number of Sable's new phone written on an LCD screen, together with Sylvania's name and a green square.

Huh. Green square. Do other doors have other colors of square? Is that an "I'm ready for you to come in" signal? If it's mostly green squares and red squares-or-somethings, she'll try knocking softly on the door.

It's about 90% red squares, although there are multiple doors that have a green square and "WALK-IN" written on their LCDs. When Sable knocks, Sylvania walks over, and looks at her with a mixture of curiosity and excitement in her face. "Sable, miss. Please walk on in! I think that there's much to talk about."

She smiles and steps inside. "I think you're right. This is going to be a very interesting conversation."

The office is unusually spacious, with a bunch of pretty PSAs and sterile stables placed against one of the walls. And every (both) chairs are basically ultra-nice armchairs. Sylvania sits down first, with an unusual posture with spread legs and her arms taking up much of the space in the room. "Sable, not to be cruel. But you're 31, and you have no experience of blockers or hormones. Do you want to... talk about why? I think it'd help for you to let it all out and to understand what the situation is now, and why that situation is what it is."

She blinks, as she settles into the chair, and exhales hard. "I... yeah. I didn't know. I spent so long not knowing why I was ambiently miserable. I spent so long not even remembering all the little signs that I tried so hard to ignore growing up. There were no transgender people to see as examples, no available explanation for why I was suddenly filled with dread when I started growing visible leg hair and stopped wearing shorts after that. And I wasn't one of the kids who could derive the insight on her own. Puberty kind of broke me and I didn't know why. Didn't realize it until I was thirty."

She pauses, slows her breathing, blinks a few tears away.

Sylvania lets Sable sit in silence for a bit. "Well, you don't have to live with any of that anymore. So we'll fix everything. Hair is the first thing you'll see, all my clients feel amazing relief at having their hair problems fixed, I can get you a real electrolysis session to fix that right up. The shorts... another thing that really helps, very quickly, is new clothes. Especially new, nicer underwear, with pretty lace, that makes you look how you feel and feel how you want. But I think those are surface steps. I think the real work, and the real reward, will come from you thinking about who you really are. And who you really want to be. So, do you feel comfortable trying to think about that? Just a bit?"